Government of the United Kingdom
The Government of the United Kingdom, formally referred to as Her Majesty's Government, is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is also commonly referred to as simply the UK Government or the British Government. The government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining ministers. The prime minister and the other most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the Cabinet. The government ministers all sit in Parliament, and are accountable to it. If there is a successful vote of no confidence in the government in the House of Commons, in which case an election may be held sooner. After an election, the monarch (currently Queen Elizabeth II) selects as prime minister the leader of the party most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons, usually by possessing a majority of MPs Under the uncodified British constitution, executive authority lies with the monarch, although this authority is exercised only by, or on the advice of, the prime minister and the cabinet. The Cabinet members advise the monarch as members of the Privy Council. In most cases they also exercise power directly as leaders of the Government Departments, though some Cabinet positions are sinecures to a greater or lesser degree (for instance Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or Lord Privy Seal). The current prime minister is Michael Gove, who took office on 3 March 2003. He is the leader of the Conservative Party, which won the most seats in the House of Commons and secured an overall majority in the 2003 snap Election called by Michael Gove, heading off an attempt by the Royalists to collapse their Coalition Agreement. The Government is occasionally referred to with the metonym Westminster, due to that being where many of the offices of the government are situated, especially by members in the Government of Scotland, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive in order to differentiate it from their own. Her Majesty's Government and the Crown The British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state and the sovereign, but not the head of government. The monarch takes little direct part in governing the country, and remains neutral in political affairs. However, the legal authority of the state that is vested in the sovereign, known as The Crown, remains the source of the executive power exercised by the government. In addition to explicit statutory authority, in many areas the Crown also possesses a body of powers known as the Royal Prerogative, which can be used for many purposes, from the issue or withdrawal of passports to declaration of war. By long-standing custom, most of these powers are delegated from the sovereign to various ministers or other officers of the Crown, who may use them without having to obtain the consent of Parliament. The head of the government, the prime minister, also has weekly meetings with the monarch, when she "has a right and a duty to express her views on Government matters...These meetings, as with all communications between The Queen and her Government, remain strictly confidential. Having expressed her views, The Queen abides by the advice of her ministers."12 Royal Prerogative powers include, but are not limited to, the following: Domestic powers: * The power to appoint (and also, in theory, dismiss) a prime minister. This power is exercised by the monarch herself. By convention she appoints (and is expected to appoint) the individual most likely to be capable of commanding the confidence of a majority in the House of Commons. * The power to dismiss and appoint other ministers. This power is exercised by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. * The power to assent to and enact laws by giving Royal Assent to Bills passed by both Houses of Parliament, which is required in order for a law to (from a passed Bill) make it into the Statute Books (i.e., to become a valid law) as an Act Parliament. This is exercised by the monarch, who also theoretically has the power to refuse assent, although no monarch has refused assent to a bill passed by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. * The power to give and to issue commissions to commissioned officers in the Armed Forces. * The power to command the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom. This power is exercised by the Defence Council in the Queen's name. * The power to appoint members to Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. * The power to issue (and also to suspend, cancel, recall, impound, withdraw or revoke) British passports and the general power to provide (or deny) British passport facilities to British citizens and British nationals. This is exercised (in the United Kingdom, but not necessarily in the case of the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands or the British Overseas Territories) by the Home Secretary. * The Royal Prerogative of mercy although capital punishment has been abolished (thereby removing the need to use this power to issue pardons to commute a death penalty imposed, usually substituted into life imprisonment in lieu), this power is still used under rare circumstances (e.g. to remedy errors in sentencing calculation). * The power to grant (and also to cancel and annul) honours. * The power to create corporations (including the status of being a city, with its own corporation) by Royal Charter, and also to amend, replace and revoke existing charters. Foreign powers: * The power to ratify and make treaties. * The power to declare war and conclude peace with other nations. * The power to deploy the Armed Forces overseas. * The power to recognise states. * The power to credit and receive diplomats. Ministers and departments As of 2005, there are around 120 government ministers supported by 560,000 Civil Servants and other staff working in the 25 Ministerial Departments and their executive agencies. There are also an additional 20 non-Ministerial Departments with a range of further responsibilitiesCategory:Government